Random thoughts on Religion, Politics, Contemporary Culture, and just about everything else!

Friday, August 14, 2015

WHY I DON'T LIKE THE WORD "HOMOPHOBIA"

This isn't the first time I've expressed what I'm saying here, and it almost certainly won't be the last. But I make no apologies for expressing MY opinion here, in MY blog post!

OKAY, I KNOW I'M IN THE MINORITY ON THIS, so I have to tell you that I'm here expressing MY opinion, as I have a right to do. And I am NOT asking anyone to critique this; I just want to add another perspective to this conversation:

I don't like, and I very rarely use, the word "homophobia," which implies to me that most feelings or actions described as "homophobic" are fear-based. Of course I know that many examples are fear-based, but I do not believe that MOST are, despite what so many folks these days would have us believe.

If anything, I believe that a majority of people whom I'd describe as "anti-gay" are such for reasons of personal morality. I believe that most people with such attitudes embrace them because they sincerely believe that homosexuality and homosexual acts are MORALLY WRONG, not because there's some sort of unconscious fear that they themselves might be homosexual.

I grew up in the South, in the middle of the 20th Century. At that time --- as now, to tell you the truth --- most Southerners, and certainly a majority of blacks in the South, were ardent believers in a strict, literalist view of the Bible, and had been for generations. So they believed that any same-sex coupling was sinful, because "the Bible says" so. I'm sure there are other factors at play in their attitude toward homosexuality, but definitely many oppose it for little reason other than their own belief that it's immoral. So, I prefer "anti-gay" to "homophobic."

I distinguish between the orientation (homosexuality) and the actions (same-sex coupling). Maybe Paul, Peter, and other writers in Biblical times didn't make the distinction, but I do. I believe that homosexual orientation is completely morally neutral; being homosexual is no more morally acceptable or unacceptable than being heterosexual, as a vast majority of folks are, I believe. And I wouldn't generalize about homosexual acts; they can range from forced rape all the way to monogamous coupling between two --- and only two --- committed partners who happen to be of the same gender. I would consider some of those acts as very immoral, and others as completely, totally acceptable. Now, Paul and Peter may not agree, and they expressed their opinion in letters they wrote which have been included in what we know as the Bible. I'm expressing my opinion here --- and yes, I am saying that I believe that I have every bit as much a right to my opinion as they do to theirs. You may disagree, and that's alright; remember, this is my opinion, my blogpost.

And, as I've suggested above, I don't believe that most people oppose homosexuality and homosexual acts out of conscious or unconscious fear --- although some do. For that reason, I don't like the word "homophobia." A somewhat more detailed view of how I do see this:http://donzpost.blogspot.com/2012/09/is-homosexuality-choice.html